Early Development Instrument (EDI) Dashboard Online

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

The Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP) has announced the launch of the Early Development Instrument (EDI) Dashboard an online, interactive tool, available to the public, that allows for the exploration of patterns and trends from Wave 2 (2004-2007) to Wave 8 (2019-2022).

The EDI questionnaire, completed by kindergarten teachers for the students in their classrooms each year, gathers information across five key areas of development:

·      Physical Health & Well-being

·      Social Competence

·      Emotional Maturity

·      Language & Cognitive Development

·      Communication Skills & General Knowledge

The latest data release (Wave 8) includes, for the first time, the full distribution of children’s developmental outcomes, identifying the percentage of children who are on track, vulnerable, or in between (“in flux”) in their development across the five EDI scales. Previously, only vulnerability rates were reported. Wave 8 revealed that almost half of children in BC (45/4%) are on track on all five scales of the EDI, 32/9% are vulnerable on one or more scales, and another 21.8% are in flux.

The release notes that, through the EDI Dashboard, viewers can explore EDI data charts and maps at a number of levels – overall, scale and subscale – and using several boundary filters such as BC ministries of Education & Child Care, Health, Children & Family Development, as well as HELP-designated neighbourhoods.

The site is very accessible and opens with a quick navigation guide. Other supports include a technical guide for the dashboard, the EDI Wave 8 Provincial Synthesis Report, and EDI Overview, a downloadable PowerPoint template, and a data library containing links to a wide range of materials relating to HELP data searchable by type or by topic.